Reacting to a stark spike in shootings that has left six people dead in the past two weeks, Salinas leaders brought in the uniformed cavalry and elevated their peace-building rhetoric. But the beefed-up patrols will likely only quiet gunfire temporarily.

A $15 million judgment against New Orleans' DA's office after a man who spent 14 years on death row was found not guilty of the crime for which he was convicted has new District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro on the financial ropes. And that may only be the beginning.

Portlanders remain outraged over Aaron Campbell's death. A day after the police chief's radio appearance, a group of 50 people carpooled to Salem to meet with legislators. Reverend Renee Ward wants prevent the further "murder" of young men like Campbell, she says.

The jail spends half of its annual $600,000 drug budget on psychiatric medications for the inmates who will consent to taking them. But jails can't force the inmates. Far from solving our state's mental health problems, the current situation is probably making them worse.

During a choreographed effort to pull a few dozen protesters out of the Chase bank branch, part of a hundreds-strong day of action, Portland police officers resorted to a decidedly more muscular show of force in a clash watched by TV cameras and rush-hour commuters. Suddenly all the fun—the dance parties, the union songs, the peaceful arrests earlier on the Steel Bridge and at Wells Fargo—was for naught.

During Sunday's Occupy Portland march on Main Street after Chapman Square was cleared, Portland Mercury News Editor Denis Theriault was unceremoniously knocked on his ass by a police officer wielding a baton.